The bodies of a 55-year-old woman and her 30-year-old daughter — who went missing from Bulandshahr recently — were found in separate bogies of Mahananda Express stationed at Shahdara railway station, on Saturday, police said. Although police suspect suicide, officers admitted that robbery and murder could not be ruled out since their belongings were missing.

Police added that the victims’ family said that the two “suffered from depression” and that they had lodged a missing complaint in Bulandshahr on August 15. Parwaiz Ahmed, DCP (Railways), said that the family had been informed and that the postmortems were being conducted. He said, “We have also recorded the statement of the family members and started the probe accordingly.”

The bodies were discovered in S3 coach of the train by an Railway Protection Force (RPF) officer while patrolling the shunting area for the trains on Saturday. “The body of the elderly woman was found lying prone on the seat while her daughter’s body was in the next compartment,” said police, adding that prima facie investigation pointed to poisoning, since one of the victims had “froth coming out of her mouth”. Police are yet to rule out the possibility of them being drugged to facilitate theft and are also investigating how the two reached the shunting area.